Wansdronk Architecture

Emporium summary - building concept

The Emporium plan is a building concept for zero-energy or solar energy buildings
that use energy and materials economically. This construction can provide the
climatic facilities for housing living bodies. A warm water storage container and
collectors provide the space heating and hot water supply, and a cold water storage
container and collectors deliver the space cooling and cooling source for the
refrigerator. The water circulates without pumps; instead it uses thermosiphon, and
therefore requires no high-grade energy such as electricity or fuel. A lightweight
construction supports the water storage containers. This mass of water also replaces
the hot and cold accumulating capacity of the building mass. The building concept is
suitable for free-standing, connected, or high-rise home and utility buildings in all
climate zones. The technical feasibility has been proved and confirmed. The
economic feasibility is characterized by zero-emission, biodiversity, safety, health,
comfort and lifelong durability.

Nowadays the building sector accounts for a substantial part - 30 to 50% - of CO2 emissions, largely due to cement production
and climatic control, for example. Using zero-energy buildings with a light wooden
construction, whereby water for energy storage replaces the building mass, easily
reduces this CO2 emission. The zero-energy buildings cause a substantial reduction
in the total CO2 emission figure, thereby creating room for market sectors with
more expensive reduction options to let the CO2 emission grow parallel with the
economic growth. The lightweight construction also saves building material as well
as the extraction of raw material, and reduces building transportation - at present
25% of the building costs. The reduction of energy, CO2 emission, material and
transportation, contribute to the preservation of biodiversity. The building sector is
known to have the highest number of fatal accidents, disabled workers and
absentees. By moving the building construction from the building site to the
workshop, safety and working conditions will improve drastically. The buildings are
manufactured industrially and sectionally. This prefabrication will also cut building
waste, at present the largest contributor to the stream of waste. By using heating
and cooling ceilings in the rooms, which have a low temperature, which is
favourable for solar energy, in combination with a high position, the circulation of
hot space air is avoided. By using these radiation ceilings, the air temperature can
be lower, so that less energy is wasted with natural ventilation. The energy saving of
present newly built homes is responsible for an increase in asthma, especially
among young people, due to strongly reduced fresh air ventilation. This lifelong
illness can be avoided by means of better ventilation and less hot air circulation. For
this reason, the building concept combines natural ventilation with low temperature
radiation ceilings, and thus provides a healthy and comfortable inner climate. The
building concept is limited to the construction and therefore allows flexibility within
the floor plan. Due to the increasing demand in the area of housing older people, the
Government aims to supply homes that are suitable for lifelong habitation. The
primary functions - living, sanitary and sleeping - are easily accessible in these
homes. Free-standing solar homes have these functions on the ground level, and
therefore meet these requirements.

Sustainable building organizations have
characterized the Emporium as: exceptional in energy saving, an extremely
material-efficient building method, creating good conditions for an excellent quality
of the inner environment, and a multi-disciplinary innovation, being very special for
this reason alone. In short, an example of sustainable building that far exceeds
today's ambition levels.

Emporium summary - business model

A business model will support the product development and market implementation
of the Emporium plan. This business model will diminish the present barriers for
innovations within the building sector, the tax system, and the social process as
much as possible.

The building sector is project-dependent and relation-oriented to a great extent,
whereas an innovation requires a project-independent and market-oriented
approach. The Emporium business model will provide the opportunity of transferring
innovation knowledge, and of creating contact between market parties within the
project-dependent and relation-oriented building sector. The Emporium building
concept serves as a milestone for an unequivocal innovation direction, for long-term
realization of projects. Building parties that have project-independent and market-
oriented turnover possibilities can invest in a step-by-step adjustment of the building
process in the direction of the innovation. The business model also provides a
contact field where market opportunities originate, and - by equalizing expectations
and determining ambition levels - buildings can be realized in shorter periods of
time. As a result, the initial adjustment of the building process brings innovation one
step closer. The support for the business model will be determined by the
relationships between the participating market parties. The participation of financers
and producers - the building clients and industry - will only strengthen this support.

Time, energy, and material are three factors that play a significant role in today's
economy. Time is expensive because it is the most heavily taxed factor, while
energy is taxed less and material hardly at all. By using material and energy, time
is saved, which is profitable from a tax point of view. Nature, however, seems to
strive for the most economical material usage, by applying energy and time. This
means that nature considers materials to be the most expensive goods. There is as
much energy as the sun can offer, and time plays hardly any role. Consequently, the
material and energy economy of the building concept can also be a means to reform
the tax system. In all likelihood, this reformation of the tax system will have a much
greater impact on the intended durable society than the reformation of the material
system only. At present, the adjustment of the tax system is blocked by the material
system, which in turn is completely structured by this tax system, and therefore a
gradual tax reformation will have little effect. The building concept offers a way -
step-by-step through each market sector - to completely reform the tax system. In
today's building process a specific amount of tax is paid for time, energy and
material. With the Emporium building concept, a house will yield the same tax
amount, but the divisional structure will be altered. Material and energy will be
taxed more heavily, and time less. Material and energy saving opportunities offer,
within the same building costs, the possibility for extra time investments, without
resulting in higher taxation. These time investments stimulate employment. At
present, the European building sector is facing decreasing employment and declining
profits.

In this century, the implementation of important innovations seems to be
determined by two influential factors. The driving force is the integration of several
disciplines, and the restraining force is the complexity of the social process. Due to
the required communication involved, an interdisciplinary process is sometimes less
efficient. With an integral approach such as the Emporium building concept, the
solution can often be more effective.